Tigers Nick Castellanos’ is Working on Defense

Nick Castellanos was considered one of the best hitting prospects in the Tigers farm system when he resided there. Drafted out of Archbishop McCarthy high school in 2010 he went 44th overall and when he was signed received an unprecedented $3.45 million as a signing bonus.

That much money for a non first rounder seemed crazy, but when he went to work for the Tigers organization it appeared to be money well spent. He led the (single A) Midwest League in hits while with the West Michigan Whitecaps, was the MVP in the Futures game while with (AA) Erie, and played in the AAA all star game as a Mud Hen in Toledo.

He has 15 homers and 89 RBIs so far in just over 200 games of service for Detroit, numbers that are certainly serviceable so far in his career. Remember though he was known for his hitting, the knock on Castellanos has been his defense which has been underwhelming so far in a Detroit uniform.

Grantland's Ben Lindbergh though, sees Castellanos showing signs of life on the hot corner in that his defense has gone from atrocious to mediocre, and in this case mediocre is good when it appears as a positive trend.

If advanced statistics aren't your thing take away at least this one table from the article, where every single hit towards Castellanos is measured as either impossible, remote, unlikely, even, likely, or routine in terms of making an out on said ball and you'll see Castellanos is definitely improving.

All of this and remember he's 23 years of age. That's still a lot of time and a lot of potential for someone to find his own way in the major leagues. He's not being asked to be the star of this team and that's a good thing. It allows him time to figure out his game and figure out how to be a star in the majors before the pressure to be great should fall upon him.